1

SPECIAL NOTE FOR THE FIRST EDITION

Dear Friend,

I have invested more than 18 years owning and running a restaurant.

This book condenses many of the important lessons I’ve learned, for
you to use. These Ideas have made a huge difference in my life, and I
hope that they will make a positive difference to you as well.

You’re reading the First Edition of this E-book, You’re the first to see it,
Outside of a handful of Friends and Family. As much as I tried to say
things in the right way, And get everything right, There will inevitably
be things that are unclear…Little Mistakes…and Typing errors
included.

If you see something that could have been said in a better way, or you
find an error or a type, will you do me a favor and send me a note?

My email is gopal.valuehospitality@gmail.com

…and I’ll send you a little gift for finding things that can improve this
book.

Also I have created a Restaurant Building Roadmap listing out all the
steps you need to know in order to open a successful restaurant of your
own. To Download  Free  Restaurant  Roadmap  Go  To  
www.valuehospitality.in  

For  a  Free  Restaurant  Building  Training  Event  go  to  

http://www.getyourrestaurant.com/join-­‐us  

Finally,  Please  email  me  your  stories  of  How  you’ve  used  what  you  
learned  from  this  book  and  what  difference  it  has  made  in  your  life,  

Knowing  about  your  experience  and  listening  to  your  stories  is  the  
greatest  reward  in  my  life,  

I  look  forward  to  hearing  from  you!  

-­‐    Gopal  

i
  

RESTAURANT SECRETS:
HOW TO OPEN A SUCCESSFUL
RESTAURANT FAST EVEN IF YOU DON’T
HAVE EXPERIENCE.

GOPAL KAMATH

ii
  

Copyright © 2018 by: Gopal Kamath

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or

transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronics, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission
of the Author.

   

iii
   CONTENTS  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT   VI  

ABOUT  THE  AUTHOR   VII  

CHAPTER  ONE   1  

1.1   Which  is  the  safest  business  on  earth?   1  

1.2   Who  should  open  a  restaurant?   2  

1.3   Who  should  not  open  a  restaurant?   8  

1.4   Finding  the  right  location  for  your  restaurant   13  

CHAPTER  TWO   18  

2.1   Study  the  Bill  Size   18  

2.2   Are  you  a  millionaire?   20  

2.3   Deploy  Trusted  People   23  

2.4   Dealing  with  People  –  People  Skills   27  

2.5   Patience  and  Faith   30  

CHAPTER  THREE   31  

3.1   Planning  your  restaurant   31  

3.2   Licensing  and  Permits!   36  

3.3   Setting  up  the  systems   39  

iv
3.4   Food  and  Beverage  Menu  Planning   42  

CHAPTER  FOUR   45  

4.1   Fire  Bad  Apples!   45  

4.2   It’s  all  a  circus!   46  

4.3   Tight  fist  control  on  finances   48  

CHAPTER  FIVE   51  

5.1   Getting  Feedback  and  Adapting.   51  

5.2   Handling  Complaints   52  

5.3   Collecting  Guest  data   54  

1.4   Communicate  with  your  guest!   55  

5.5   Discounting  Helps  Nobody!   56  

5.6   Marketing  &  Promotions.   57  

   

v
 Acknowledgement
To My Father, Anna. You are my single greatest source of inspiration.
Thank you for introducing me to this wonderful business.
I owe you My Success!
To My Beautiful Wife Vidula and My two daughters Avantika and
Anvi. Thanks for helping me stay Humble.

To You, Thank you for getting this Book. I am glad you took this first
step to realizing your dream of owning a restaurant.

This action itself has put you ahead of 95% population who just keep on
dreaming and don’t take any action.

vi
 About the Author

Gopal Kamath is an Hotelier and Restaurateur from Mumbai, India. He

has opened, assisted and consulted many hotel and restaurant projects.

He started working with his father in a small restaurant in Mumbai and

went on to create a chain of restaurants’ of his own.

He then started helping individuals passionate about owning their own

restaurants by guiding them to achieve their dream business.

Over the past 10 years, Gopal Kamath has helped innumerable

individuals with their restaurant business. His mission is to create one
million successful restaurateurs in the coming decades.

Founder: Gopal Kamath

Website: www.getyourrestaurant.com
E-mail: gopal@getyourrestaurant.com

vii
 “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what
you’ve always gotten. It is in your moments of decision
that your destiny is shaped. A real decision is measured
by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no
action, you haven’t truly decided. The path to success is
to take massive, determined action.”

- Tony Robbins

viii
 CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Which is the safest business on earth?

There are lot of businesses like trading, retailing, real

estate, banking and finance, teaching, and so on. Why would someone
want to open a restaurant? I have couple of really cool points which
would help you understand this business even better.

First of all, a restaurant is a recurring addition source of income for

you. This will help you reach financial freedom far faster than what
you are earning right now. This is an every month regular income
that you will be getting once your restaurant starts profiting.

This will help us answer the question, “which is the safest business
on the earth”. Everyone needs to eat something and nobody can stay
without eating something. So, if everyone needs to eat, therefore
they cannot eat every time in their house. Humans need variety. So
everybody, every family, every couple, and every single individual
have to go out once in a while to eat something. Even if it’s once in a
while.

There are some people who prefer to eat at home – almost every
time. But then there are some people who don’t like eating home
cooked food, they must definitely go out sometimes to eat.

Generally on weekends, weekdays or whenever people feel like

coming out to eat. That’s good for Restaurant business, that’s good
for the industry. Moreover, a restaurant in itself has got multiple
sources of revenue.
1
For example, if you are building a standalone restaurant there are so
many factors which can be responsible for your profit. A standalone
business could be;

• In-house Dining where people come to eat.

• A delivery shop where people order food from.
• Joints where people go out to eat when there is festival.
• Guest house where people come for most important events.
• Outdoor catering services where people order food in bulk.

Since all streams of revenues exist for a restaurant, this business

rocks. However, if you restaurant depends on only one source of
income there are chances of the source going dry. If you are
deploying so many streams of income then your chances of failure
are more or less negligible. Apart from these points, the restaurant
industry comparatively has a very high profit margin accompany to
the investment that you make.

1.2 Who should open a restaurant?

Now you must be wondering if this restaurant business has got such
a high profit margin, What happens to all the wastage? Because,
every single day, they must cook food. Sometimes, the guests turn
up and food is consumed; and some of the times the guests don’t
come, thus, the cooked food goes to dump.

Despite of all the wastages and all the negativities which technically
a restaurant has, I would still consider this business as one of the
most profitable businesses because you are getting into a business
which pays you every day.

It’s not like you are doing a very huge investment and you are
getting very low revenue and a minuscule amount of profit. So
overall apart from the wastages, expenses – all things which are
there – the profit margins are pretty high.

Secondly, There are many ways to minimize wastages. Its not as if

you are cooking a whole lot and Sit there expecting Customers only
2
to throw the cooked food out. There are many methods, Tips and
Tricks to plan a Menu the right way so that your restaurant does not
run into losses due to wastage.

Another important point which I would like to focus on as far as a

restaurant is concerned is The Ease with which you can open a
restaurant – The Speed in which you can open a restaurant. In India
or anywhere in the world, opening a restaurant particularly is very
easy if you compare it with opening a big factory where you have to
take all the approvals and Complete legalities, you have to arrange
for huge capital. Irrespective of whether you can afford it or not, the
process is pretty big. Then apart from that, you have to work on
Recruiting, you have to get in a huge task force. So all this is cut off
if you open a restaurant. If you do it the way I will teach you in this
book, you can get a restaurant open within 3 to 4 months – yes, it is
possible! If you focus on the right things, you can immediately
within 3 months’ time have your working restaurant.

That is one of the coolest things which I would like to say it is ideal
for the success of a business.

Now a restaurant, apart from the functionalities, the money, and the
technical aspects, one of the best things which I like about a
restaurant is that you get to meet a lot of people and simultaneously
earn money from them – and they feel happy about it.

So, it’s like three winning scenarios inbuilt in your business.

Generally if you take money from somebody, he doesn’t feel happy.
So here in this case, you are feeding them, you’re getting all their
good wishes, they are loving the experience and you’re making
money. That is one of the coolest things I have ever experienced
unlike in any other business!

If you’re a social animal, like many of us are, you’re on Facebook,

LinkedIn, Instagram, WhatsApp and other social media platforms.
We humans, like to connect everywhere, we like to share our
experiences and we like to party. So unless you’re an introvert, most
of the things in your life are fulfilled, It’s a different story. But
otherwise, Most of the goals can be achieved if you open a restaurant

3
and you can really earn money and at the same time have fun once
you start plugging in your restaurant in your social circuit!

So, probably if you either own your business like a family business
or a partnership, there are chances that you’re not fulfilled, because
you don’t like what you do? If you open a restaurant and do things
the right way, you will love what you do, at the same time make
money. So that is one of the rarest things I find in any businesses and
that is one thing which really compels me to open new restaurants of
my own and which drives me to help other people with opening their
restaurant before they fall in love.

Once they fall in love with the restaurant, then sky is the limit, they
can go on and on, do so many things and at the same time live a
fulfilling life.

Now, another reason why opening restaurants are very ideal is

because they are recession proof. They are recession proof in the
sense that suppose there is economic melt-down as explained in all
the news and everywhere, bad economy and things are going down
and “Mandi Chal rahi hai” (Economy is weak) and all that. But still
the restaurants are a combination of necessity and luxury, it is not
luxury at all, and comparatively it is not a complete necessity.
People would rather limit the number of times they visit a restaurant.
Assuming they do visit the restaurant five times a week before, now
because of recession they’ll limit it to two-three times a week.

When the sales are a little low, it can be backed up by good

restaurant marketing as I’m going to teach you. That can be backed
up by a lot of good activities which you can do which will top up the
sales. Therefore, it is recession proof as it can easily scale through
recession once you know how to set up and run a successful
restaurant. I don’t think you’re going to stop at one restaurant.

I mean, of course you can stop at one restaurant if your life is

fulfilled and you don’t want any other tensions, for that matter, if
you think of the restaurant as a tension but i have seen my students,
colleagues and friends whom I have helped set up their restaurants
opening around three, four, five restaurants in a matter of a couple of
years.

4
Because it is addictive, it is scaleable, it is replicable, and you just
have to copy the same formula somewhere else - the kitchen layout,
the restaurant layout which I will teach you – all things are going to
go in the same way. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you don’t
have to go and again discover something new or like “Yeh Yaha Pe
Kya Rahega” (Who’s going to go here). It’s easily scalable, it’s
easily replicable.

So these are all the points that are very necessary to open your own
restaurant and once you do that, life is as smooth as silk.

5
 Selecting A Relevant Name for Your Restaurant.

N aming you restaurant is one area where I have seen people

spending a lot of time, effort and money and they still screw it up. It is
an area where their artistic juices start flowing and they take more than
required time to finalize a name. Somehow I feel it is the same process
like naming your child. (If you have ever got one).

In my opinion, the name should be simple preferable not more than

three words as more than that people tend to forget it. The name should
give a fair idea about the concept and should set the tone for a mild
curiosity to experience it.

Once the name is finalized, you can get hold of a designer to design the
Logo. Always keep it simple, don’t overdo the designing part by making
it look flashy, confusing and goddy!

Follow it up with a simple tagline which explains the concept in brief.

For Example a South Indian restaurant called ‘Southy’ – The Place for
Authentic South Indian Food Lovers’ tells the reader about its concept
in brief.

An example of a confusing Name and tagline would be ‘Celebration’ –

Your adda of fun’. If you see closely, the reader will get confused, as he
has no clue whether it is a restaurant or a Lounge bar or a banquet hall
or a gaming zone!

Overall Keep It Simple, Don’t overdo it!

6
Write down at least 7 to 10 Names and taglines and show then to your
friends and family. Don’t tell them what it is for. Ask them questions
and get feedback. If they are able to understand your name and concept,
others will. If they don’t understand them, Work on some more.
You have to start with an understanding name!

Fast Action – Do It Now!

7
1.3 Who should not open a restaurant?
This is a very important point about which I really want to be as
specific and crystal as I can be. Every business has its pros and cons
and I would like to tell you that getting a restaurant of your own is
not a get rich quick scheme or a lottery ticket! It’s a lot of hard work.

You cannot expect your restaurant to start guzzling money from the
second day you opened it. I mean, it is not as if you have to book
profit from the day one you open. It might be true if you’re in shares
trading business but then it has its own downsides.

So, the number one quality you need to have if you want to be a
successful restaurateur is you got to have patience, you have to
exercise a lots of faith in your own restaurant and it is real hard
work.

People who are lazy, who want to do a fast Crorepati, as they show
in the movies, million dollar day lottery schemes or such – I would
suggest that they don’t look at restaurants as their business.
Restaurant is also not a style statement; it is not your work of art. I
mean, if you are building a restaurant and you like, for example, you
want to put an Air Conditioner.

If you think your restaurant needs the best Air Conditioner which is
very expensive so that you can show off yourself, I would beg to
differ from you. You have to be practical, you have to spend money.
If you like a particular brand, you like overspending or whatever,
you can do it in your personal life. I suggest not to bring all these
choices of yours into your restaurant.

Of course, the restaurant décor and everything needs to be nice but

there should be a balance between practicality and what is necessary;
likewise want and need. Spending a lot on getting a new restaurant
really puts the whole business in danger.

The reason is when you overspend on a certain thing and luxury is

an indefinite world. I mean, it is so much… that the sky is the limit
basically. So I would like to set things straight, I thought this should
be in your head before you open a restaurant.

8
The other thing is you have to keep your personal agenda aside.

Now for example, if you think that your restaurant is your style
statement, the restaurant is like a complete place where all your
family comes and meets every day, food is being served without
been billed….Do you think this is a good Idea? See, It’s your
business, ultimately it is your money but what I would like to
suggest to you is to keep aside your personal agenda and treat your
restaurant like a complete practical business.

You have to keep your eye on the return on investment, for example,
if you have put in ten, fifteen, twenty lakh/rupees in the restaurant,
you have to be very calculative about it. Every month if you get a
particular amount, you have to relate it with what you are getting,
you have to always keep your eye on the Numbers. Because if you
ignore this particular point it won’t take time for your restaurant to
go into a mess, to go into losses and then finally you’ll be forced to
close it down. So make sure that you treat it as a complete business
and not your family home.

Yeah, another point – this restaurant is not for people who have very
limited resources or limited income or limited money. I appreciate
your enthusiasm to open your own restaurant but I would not suggest
you go and open your own restaurant if your income or your
resources are very limited and you cannot raise the money to open
the restaurant. I don’t want you to go into complete debt or a loan.

A minimum loan I can understand but you should be in a position

where you could at least put in your own 15%, 20% or 30% of your
own money. Otherwise if you are basically starving (Not for
food,But for extra Money,capital etc) – please don’t mind me saying
that – but if you are basically starving i.e. if you have very limited
resources, then this might not be a right time to open a restaurant.
Please keep that in mind.

The restaurant is not for people who are looking for fast money. It is
not for someone looking for a lottery or immediate money or in an
immediate need of money. Getting a restaurant into profit takes time,
it can take somewhere around two months to six to eight months to

9
pick up your restaurant sales. Nobody is going to have a dream on
the last night that you have opened a restaurant.

No matter how much good marketing you do, it still takes time for
people to understand your restaurant, your concept, it takes time for
them to come to you, to eat your food, to understand and then after
that, slowly you start making money. It’s one of the strongest
businesses but at the same time it has con’s also, please make sure
you are ready for that.

10
 Why do you need a Restaurant? Find your Right Reason!

Before even thinking of opening your restaurant, you have to dive deep
into your heart and find the right reason, why?

Why is it that you want to open your Restaurant?

• Is it for Money!
• Does Cooking excite you?
• You want other people to experience your cuisine!
• Is it for Passive Income?
• Are you doing it for your Spouse?
• Do you love meeting and treating your friends?
• Are you tired of your Job?
• Do you want to prove yourself to someone?
• Because your wife / mother / brother says you are good in
cooking?

Opening a restaurant is easy if you have the right reasons. It will be

pretty hard if you do it for the wrong reasons. A new restaurant involves
a lot of things like

• Money which you are going to invest

Time (which is invaluable), your resources, own emotions and most

importantly your belief which you are putting on the line in front of all
your relatives and friends.

Get the right reasons and you will develop strength to bear all the
challenges, which a new restaurant brings.

11
Immediately take a piece of paper and write the reason why you want to
zero in on this goal.

Fast Action – Do it now!

12
1.4 Finding the right location for your restaurant
Now where to locate and who to target as far as your restaurant is
concerned? Earlier around 10-15 years back, it was a famous saying
that there are three things which are very important for the success of
a restaurant.

Those were Location, Location and Location – and it was true!

Those days, most of the restaurants which opened, were Udupi style
of restaurants. Most of the restaurants were Udupi style or
Maharashtrian Style or Punjabi style restaurants which used to cater
to masses. There were not that much Fine Dine restaurants.

For example, market areas like Bombay stock exchange, any of the
market areas there was a huge floating population. The restaurants in
those areas used to flourish. So that is one of the reasons why people
used to focus on location!

But now after the globalization of 1992/1993 and after the opening
up of the markets and finances – it’s very easy to get finance and
money… the earnings have increased, the spending power of people
has increased. Now, people have slowly started looking into the
other aspects. Now, people want quality.

So now according to me, the ideal thing which is very important as

far as success of a restaurant is concerned are three things – the first
is the Location, follow by Service you render and lastly Marketing.

The success of a restaurant does not mean that once you give good
service, your customer would return to you. People are being
bombarded with marketing messages every second.An average
person get more than 3000 Marketing messages each day.A
restaurant owner has to compete with that much competition and
distraction. Taking for instance, assuming someone who has had
beautiful tasty food, the next morning you ask him, “Which
restaurant would you go to?” It is very hard for him to remember the
name of the restaurant.

13
That is because the market is so competitive. So now the mantra is
Location, Food, Service and Marketing. Now in current times in a
restaurant, price is not a criteria. The type of food and service is a
major Make or Break situation. Earlier, 10 to 15 years ago, people
were very price conscious. Now they intend to spend more and
expect great value for their money spend. They value the return
experience they get!

Earlier,there were masses in the market and they were very skeptical
if the prices increased. They used to switch their restaurants if there
was a simple increase of a couple of Rupees in a plate of Idli or
something like that. But now people don’t even look at the right side
of the menu again, they now look at the left side of the menu. A few
of them are price sensitive, But a majority of guests value experience
over price.

Most of the time, all of the restaurants they go to, they’re looking for
is good food, they’re looking for a good experience and good
service. Money for that matter, once they go there, they have a rough
figure in their mind, They have thought of a approximate
expenditure. They’re not that price sensitive.

As far as where to locate your restaurant, you have to find the ideal
location by researching similar types of restaurants you want to
open.

So for example, you need to have a Fine Dine Restaurant which will
serve multi-cuisine like Indian, Chinese and International cuisine
like Continental dishes, Thai etc. You have to visit at least a couple
of restaurants of the same category, I would recommend three to four
restaurants which are serving the food you serve to your guests.
Once you find the restaurants, you can study them by going there to
spend some money, maybe with your family. Carefully study their
mechanics, how things are done.What is the Décor,What is the Menu
being served. That will get you a basic understanding of what other
people are enperiencing from them.

This will also help you with choosing your location and you can play
with the location a little bit because nowadays people own a couple
of vehicles, and they really don’t mind travelling a little far if they

14
want to have that kind of an experience. If you are serving them
good food and you are giving them good service then they would
really not mind driving a little far from their home. Of course, you
cannot go very far, you need to be in close-drive distance so that it
becomes easy for them to come to your restaurant and go back.

Now you also have to find out whom to target, who is your ideal
guest? All these things, once you are visiting these restaurants, Will
get crystal clear– a restaurant which you want to build – all these
things can be written down on paper.

15
 Finding The Right Location For Your Restaurant.

There are three things, which are ultra-important for success of your
restaurant. They Are Location, Location and Location.Its an old saying,
somewhat true. Without a successful Location, which promises a
peripheral constant existence of population willing to spend money on
buying your food and services, you will not succeed in the restaurant
Industry.

Before opening a restaurant, you have to give a lot of thought into

finalizing the location of your outlet. You have to study the:

• Surrounding area analysis.

• Office Premises and Commercial Shops.
• Number of Residential Complex.
• Type of people coming to work in the Offices.
• Existing Restaurants and Outlets.

The existence of market potential helps your restaurant to immediately

pickup in sales as the people eating in those restaurants are always
looking out for a new place to eat. This helps in generating cash flow,
which would have otherwise not been possible if you would have
selected the wrong place.

Selecting a Proper Location is mission critical to your restaurant

success.

16
Fast Action – Do It Now!

After you finalize on location, analyze and write on paper

• How many restaurants currently exist?

• What is their flow of customers?
• At what timings do they open and close?
• Which days are they packed and what are their low days?
• What is their average revenue?
• What is their Average Rental?
• How much have they invested?
• How many people have they employed?

17
 CHAPTER TWO

2.1 Study the Bill Size.

Try to get a pretty fair idea what would be the Average

bill size of a family. Now if you are going out regularly to a

restaurant, you must be having a pretty good idea of ticket size or
rather as we call it an APC (Average per Customer price or Average
Price Per Customer), average person cost that is basically total bill
divided by the number of people.

So, you will get a fair idea of what kind of a sale a restaurant does on
average and then an ideal location you like preferably. If you ask a
couple of real estate agents, you will be able to get a pretty fair idea
of the rent. So all I’m trying to get you into is in the thinking mode
of what you need to get your own restaurant.

So,

• What would be your rent?

• What would be your average sale?
• What would be your average salary?

Of course I am going to go deep into that, but then to start on the

path of thinking will help you understand the business more. I
always believe, once you understand the basics, once you have
strong basics you can play with them and increase your sale, there
are a few known or unknown secrets to getting a good restaurant on
track and those are what I am going to help you get locked in.

18
19
2.2 Are you a Millionaire?
You must be wondering, is having money a must inorder to open a
restaurant. Should I be a millionaire? Should I be a Lakhpati or a
Crorepati? Is this a common man’s job? Let me tell you the secret,
it’s all about managing your finances.

So a person who has a lot of money can open a restaurant, and if you
don’t deploy the ideas which I am giving you in this program, I will
bet my name on it that it’s going to get you on the doors of
bankruptcy.

Because it’s a cash business and indeed a beautiful business, it

doesn’t take time if you have lost your sight of the game, you can
pretty much lose everything. So the main thing which you need to
open a restaurant is basically capital and a part of that is the working
capital.

Working capital is the amount which you need to run the restaurant
and Capital is basically the amount which you need to invest, to
make the restaurant. The service area, table, chairs, furniture,
electrical, air conditioner, kitchen equipment, your burners, all that
kitchen equipment, utensils, inventory all come under Capital
Expenditure.Then you need to employ staff, you will have to give
them salaries. And then your inventory, that is the food grains, the
raw material which you will have to procure, expenses for acquiring
licenses, rent if you are taking a place on rent, if its your own, you
can save that but if you are taking a place on rent, then you’ll need to
have the deposit and all that comprises of the capital and the working
capital.

So make sure you have that and if you really have a problem not
coming up with that kind of money, comfortably or with ease, if you
are not able to do that, please don’t enter into this business because
then it will be for a lack of better term not in good favour for you.

20
 Apply For Finance

There are many banks and financial institutions offering loans and
advances for small and medium enterprises. Not to consider this as a
finance advice, I would suggest you to expose yourself to only so much
debt as it is possible to repay. Don’t go out of your way and borrow
from one and all. After all, you will have to repay it!

Paying Interest on your debt (Along-with Rent) are two of the biggest
burden on your cash flow and if not handled properly can eat up all your
cash flow and close down your restaurant. Make sure you borrow
money and put it to good use.

As far as project cost and capital expenditure goes, I always suggest my

clients to take it slow. Keep your project cost moderate and buy things
only, which are necessary. Don’t bring your ego in between and buy the
best quality in each and every thing you are procuring for your
restaurant. This will shoot up your project cost, forcing you to borrow
more, delay the project and put more pressure on your cash flow.

This is a business and your decision should be based on necessity, you

are not redecorating your house here! It doesn’t matter, Keep your ego
and personal preferences out of it.

Go for things that are functional, compare their prices, compare

contractors quote, bargain, negotiate to the last rupee and get your
project cost as low as humanly possible. Don’t give order to a vendor
because he is a nice person, or your friend has recommended him to
you. Be extremely ruthless with spending borrowed capital as for each
and every rupee you have to pay Interest in the long run!

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For each and every thing you are going to buy for your restaurant,
Compare the Lowest, Medium and High quality range of products. The
articles where your guest is directly going to come in contact go for
Medium to High Range products. Items, which are not, go for medium
to Low range.

Fast Action – Do It Now!

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2.3 Deploy Trusted People

An important thing which I would like to bring to your

notice is that you should have a couple of family members or trusted

employees or trusted friends in this restaurant. Let me explain why I
am trying to put this point across.

Restaurant is predominantly a Cash Business. People handle cash

and there are so many ways in which you can lose cash. Now you
must be wondering why I’m being so negative about your cash
accruals. It’s not the question of negativity or positivity, it’s my duty
to make sure you open and run a restaurant very successfully. So I’m
trying to show you all this potholes, all this flaws, which is if you let
them happen can really damage the whole business.

Now why I need a trusted employee or family member or a friend is

to get hold of two of your main important things.

First is the cash collection that is the cashier or whatever, and second
is one of the most important things that is expenses. If you have your
focus, or your trusted family member, your wife, your sallah
(brother-in-law) or your nephew, or whoever you feel will not let
you down.

You need at least one or two important people in your business who
whether you are there or not, then there is no question, but then I am
telling you in case you are working somewhere, if you have other
business and you have invested in this restaurant, I need that person
to be here, he’ll handle the cash, he’ll handle the expenses, then you
need to have a laser focus on the expenses which you do and on the
Income which comes in, because most of the theft happens where
there is money collection and where the money is been spent.

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If you just delegate this to somebody and He is not that trustworthy,
believe me that, there are so many ways in which the money will
start disappearing. In fact, you will be astounded.

So, take my word for it that you need a right person to do the job
with you otherwise you will run into trouble.

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 Recruit Experienced Staff

Staff recruitment is one of the areas where I have seen many restaurant
owners fail. Either they overpay the wrong person for the job or
underpay a good employee so much that he is forced to leave the
restaurant even if he likes working there.

Firstly, I always think that your restaurant should be overstaffed a bit.

Say 10% to 15%. This helps as you can use this staff during peak hours
(even when double your staff falls short). Secondly, it keeps them in
check. Over-relying on a single employee tends to give that employee a
sense of importance and this creates a problem. I have seen this problem
occur so much that now it has become my ritual to tell the owners to
over staff.

Having ample staff distributes the work load, so they work with ease.
This helps the management as they can take up new orders, book new
business and stay assured that the food production and Services will be
taken care by their team.

Never under staff a restaurant as it is a wrong decision. You might save

some money by not paying their salaries but in the long run you will
definitely lose business due to poor service and food quality.

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Get robust Restaurant Management Software and make sure your staff
is entering all the inventory details while procurement, Issue and
restocking. Occasionally do cross checking of Physical inventory with
software records to ensure that the staff is maintaining the system. Do
the same for wastage by physically checking the Fridges and Food
Production area.

Fast Action – Do It Now!

26
2.4 Dealing with People – People Skills
Now another thing which is very important to open a restaurant is
that you should have at least a little bit of fair idea of how to deal
with people. Like how to manage people, basically restaurant is a
people business, you make food but then you need proper handling
of the food.

The food which you are making, the ingredients are been supplied to
you by a person, so it’s basically a kind of people business. So you
need to be a little bit, you know having a relationship, for a lack of
better term I would like to say that you should be a little bit
outgoing, I am not saying you should be extrovert or something like
that, you should be a little bit outgoing. You should know how to
deal with people, and that comes in handy when a lot of things are
happening in your restaurant.

For example, you are picking up on the restaurant and sometimes

you require something special, you require a special order, if you
have developed a relationship with your vendors, your vegetable
vendor, your food grains vendors, etc. That relation comes in very
handy. These vendors and everybody else will go the extra mile for
you, and they can do things which you would not have got if you had
a straight forward relationship, that comfort level you should build
up, that is the reason you require these kinds of relationship skills.

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 Conceptualizing Your Restaurant!

The only way to differentiate your restaurant from others is getting a

unique theme. To get to your theme I suggest you should have a look at
all the existing themes in the market after you have zeroed on the
Location for your restaurant. (For more ideas on location finding, read
on) Only then can you derive your Uniqueness and differentiate it from
others.

Concept can differ in the following ways,

• Décor and Ambience.

• Lighting
• Type of Service – Full Service versus Self Service.
• Type Of Food & Beverages Served – Usual versus Authentic.
• Staff Uniforms relevant to your Theme.
• Timing of Service – Casual servicing versus Fast servicing.
• Casual Dining / Fine Dining or Fast food.
• Open Hours – Full day versus Dining time.

While each and every Concept has its own Pros and cons, identifying
your unique theme and working on it is one of the best thing you can do
for your restaurant, as it will help your guest differentiate your outlet.

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For the coming month, Go out and visit at-least 3 new restaurants each
week. Research on internet and find unusual concept restaurants. Visit
those restaurants and Jot down what is unique in them.

Fast Action – Do It Now!

29
2.5 Patience and Faith
Another thing which is very important is, and which I have specified
earlier also is you should have patience and faith; these are the most
important qualities which you should have.

If you are opening a restaurant and you do not have patience it’s
better to not open a restaurant, you can put that money somewhere
else, but if you want your own restaurant you should have faith, you
should have patience and success will come for you. I can guarantee
you that.

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 CHAPTER THREE

3.1 Planning your restaurant

Now moving further, the core focus of this whole

program is to help you build your restaurant.

So, now let me speak to you about building your restaurant. The
initial focus will be the restaurant layout and planning. Since we
already spoke about the location and the target market, I assume that
you have focused more on the zeroing in on the location and your
target market now comes the part of your restaurant layout and
planning.

There are a couple of ways in which you can layout your restaurant.
Mostly I suggest my clients to go the usual way and not to play
around with decor that much. The reason is don’t try to create
something that is not yet created, the only reason is what works,
works. So if, our goal is not to create an architectural marvel, our
goal is to create a running restaurant, and people go to a running
restaurant when they are used to all the things which they get
everywhere else.

I am not saying that is a compulsory rule but then the sitting

arrangement, the kitchen, the lighting, air-conditioning system is not
what I am talking about. But the oral layout should be specific, like
the cash counter, the sitting arrangement, the air-conditioning, the
lighting and the internal kitchen and whatever goes into the kitchen.
There are basically few rules to follow which I would speak at length
down the line, so all these things should be taken into care.

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The kitchen planning, if you focus on the kitchen planning there is
the path of flow in which we call in our terms. The flow is basically
the flow of food from the raw material stage to the cooked stage and
then finally to the serving stage. And then down the line to the
disposal, so that path has to be followed, you need to check whether
you have proper storing systems, for the refrigerators, proper things,
proper bins for the onions and potatoes and all the other vegetables
and everything, and your raw materials are also taken care of.

Mind you, restaurants have raw materials and most of them are
perishable. So perishability has to be dealt with very sternly so that
things can eat into your profits. Make sure you are taking care of
these points very specifically, don’t do the Kanjoosi (Misery). I
would like say of saving in a few thousand rupees and not getting a
storage bin and refrigerator and things like that. And then down the
lane every time you lose your inventory to spoilage and rotting and
everything, that will cost you much more than how much you have
saved in equipment.

So kitchen planning is there, Guest flow is there, Staff flow is there.

I generally go in depth with this in this program, in which I sit with
the clients and I explain everything regarding how the flow of the
guest should be, from where will the guest enter, what would be the
specific process for them and how will the guest sit, where will the
service Staff stations be and the service counters from which the
service people will serve, the waiters and where everybody keeps
their equipment, like the trays and like the order books and
everything, how will he enter the kitchen.

See all these things have to be planned properly, if you mess up this
planning, then down the line the operational activities will be
affected and the ultimate result will be that our guests will not get
good service, good food, or rather if you have messed up the guest
flow and staff flow the food which you serve from the kitchen will
arrive cold because it will take time to reach the customer and there
may also be confusion in the service area. Thus, that will affect the
level of standard of service which we are intending to provide to
customers.

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The lightning, electrical and air-conditioning planning has to be done
properly. You cannot place the air-conditioning right above the head
of the guests, the guests will feel very cold and then they will feel
uncomfortable, you cannot place it so far that it is not giving the
cooling to the whole restaurant. So, all these things have to be
checked. The electricity, the electrical points, the lightning and
everything needs to be taken into consideration.

You cannot keep a very bright light, unless you want to make some
kind of open restaurant, you cannot keep a very dim light unless
your theme suggest that.

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 Design your Outlet.

Your restaurant design should be in sync with your theme. The décor
and ambience should complement the theme and make the guest
comfortable and relaxed after entering the outlet. There are the points
you have to consider while designing your restaurant,

• The Entrance.
• The décor, Ambience and Feel
• Seating arrangement.
• Lighting, Type of lighting.
• Type and Positioning of the furniture.
• Guest flow and space to move in between tables.
• Location of the Air conditioning and fans.
• Distance from your kitchen to your service area.
• Necessary Staff Utility Equipment.
• Flooring and Ceiling.
• Overall Ambience of the Restaurant.

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Get hold of a good Interior designer for your restaurant. Study his
previous projects, Visit them if necessary to see how you feel. Match
this experience with your theme concept and decide!

Fast Action – Do It Now!

35
3.2 Licensing and Permits!
Licensing and permits is another very important aspect and I always
stress on the point.

I always tell my clients, students and the people who are taking
consults from me to go and get their license. Most of the time the
hotels, restaurants, and small restaurant which don’t apply for any
license. Some of the owners think it is not necessary. Since I have
been in this industry, licensing is one of the most important aspects,
you have to apply for licensing. For the safety of the guests and that
of the hotel owner.

There are a couple of licenses you need to acquire. Though getting

them may take a bit time because government takes time to process
them. It should not be that you do not applied for them. Most of the
licenses we need are basically necessity, however, there is no license
which the government has specified which is not useful at all.

For example the fire license, fire NOC (No Objection Certificate)
license is there, so if I have my fire licenses and there is a fire outbreak,
the fire fighters can always come to help. Please, do install in some fire
extinguishing equipment, get the check done and then there is the shop
and establishment license. So once you get the shop and establishment
license you can from the municipal corporation, or the overall governing
authority, you are different from a roadside hawker.

So all these things you can obviously apply for and I would
recommend you should apply in the due course after you have
opened the restaurant.

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 Get Licenses and Permits

Different concepts require different licenses and the type of licenses

change according to the location of your restaurant. I strongly suggest
you to apply for licenses before or as soon as your restaurant starts. This
will help you run your restaurant legally, avoid any conflicts with the
government authorities and prevent you getting trapped into
un-necessary hassles. The general licenses required to run a Restaurant
in INDIA are Shop and Establishment license.

• Food and beverage service license also called as the Eating

house license.
• Police “NOC” No Objection Certificate.
• FSSAI License.
• Fire Safety “NOC” No Objection Certificate.
• Others.

I recommend you to become member with the local Restaurant

Association and they will help you with the list of licenses required
licenses required to run a Restaurant.

In some of the states, the process obtaining of License happens while

you are running your restaurant, as government process takes time,
eventually you get the licenses from the authorities.

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Become a member of the Local Restaurant Association and get all the
necessary license requirements as possible. Start applying once you
have finalized your restaurants location.

Fast Action – Do It Now!

38
3.3 Setting up the systems
Now comes the main point of setting systems. There are couple of
systems you should follow while running your restaurant that would
really help the profitability and even at the bottom level. Like for
example the inventory, cleaning of the restaurant periodically and
generally in a month once deep cleaning is required. I mean,
thorough cleaning where you and your manager or your complete
staff, cleans the restaurant, washes it out, cleans the dusts out. Do it
regularly, because if you don’t do that, slowly, slowly termites and
rats and all those starts getting into your restaurant and then it gets
awful.

Deep cleaning is there as far as cash, there are a couple of systems,

for the cash handling systems, for your kitchen there are kitchen
inventory handling, and then for your complete restaurant there is an
inventory in which per month you have to count the inventory of
each and every item you have, so you can keep a check on what you
are losing.

Most of the times what you lose is your crockery, cutlery, your stuff
like that, so that you really know where you are missing, where you
need to keep a focus and ultimately if you lose anything the breakage
are there, like a cup breaks, plates break, a glass breaks, So all these
things if you take care nicely you will not lose that much and you
can focus and control losing things.

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 Put on paper a Strategy Plan for Your Restaurant.

Planning and strategizing a path for your restaurant development is one

of the best things you can do to achieve this goal successfully.

Before hand, you can put on paper exactly what all each and every
member of the team would do. This brings in clarity and avoids miss-
communication and conflict amongst your team.

• Firstly if you are working, you have to calculate the additional

hours, your Off Days and other time removed from your job to
devote to this project.
• Finalize your task force, recruit if necessary.
• Find out people who are close to you and who want to work on
this project to help you out are properly briefed what to do and
how.
• Define their Jobs and responsibilities.
• Define the Months you need to finalize this project. I have seen
people taking months and months completing the restaurant
and still they have some or the other things to do.
• Finalize the location and do the necessary formalities to get
charge of the place.
• Decide who will run the show, who will take care of the
finances, who will purchase inventory, who will close the
restaurant.

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Close your eyes and imagine you are running your restaurant. Jot down
the exact things your team members and family members (if they are
involved) are doing. Be as clear with jotting that as possible as this will
give you the exact idea of who will do what, how your restaurant will
function. Visualizing your restaurant will help you finalize your team to
run the show for you. It will also enable you to put down on paper the
exact strategy for developing your restaurant.

Although it may sound a little Woo Woo type, Visualizing helps a lot!

Fast Action – Do It Now!

41
3.4 Food and Beverage Menu Planning
After you open your restaurant and after you do the licensing, at time
of opening your restaurant you need to focus on your food and
beverage menu planning. Now this is a pretty elaborate process
which I have gone into depth in the program.

But what happens is once you have the food and beverage menu
planning, this is where you have the advantage, you have the edge.
You can decide what kind of food you want to serve, what kind of
beverage you want to serve and what should be the menu, what
should be the pricing and the overall feel of the restaurant. This is
where you can find your own USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
You can serve a different type of food like there are so many themes,
some of the restaurants serve authentic South-Indian recipes or some
serve authentic Italians and other delicacies.

So all these things can be controlled by you. I would suggest you

should do that and keep on testing what your target clientele
likes. Don’t bring your personal preference; For example, if you
like Pav Bhaji everybody is going to eat Pav Bhaji. No it doesn’t
work that way!

If you want to eat Pav Bhaji you can go somewhere else with
your family and have it, but if your client is asking for something
that you have find a lot of patterns in which your clients were
asking, a lot of customers and guests are asking for a particular
thing then you should come to the conclusion that this is the thing
they demanded. Our restaurants should always focus on them and
give them what they want.

Of course you can have your primary theme, for example a South-
Indian restaurant always tries to give something different like
Punjabi thali for that matter, and you cannot tell them that we only
serve this much. You have to tweak it a little bit and keep your
primary thing as the most important significant part. So this will help
you conquering the guest’s satisfaction and take this thing forward.

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 Compile a Restaurant Menu

Your menu should offer the food and beverages with a promise of your
concept. I have seen many restaurant owners change their menu
according to the whims and fancies of their guests. Although paying
heed to Customer feedback is important, you don’t have to take each
and every minute feedback and chance your menu according to it.

You and only you are the final decision maker as to which type of food
is going to be served in your restaurant. Suppose you are serving
authentic Bengali food and just because one of your guest ordered
Chinese and it was not here, you cannot put in a whole Chinese section
in your menu!

Firstly adding a new cuisine to your already existing menu involves

cost. You have to keep in mind the extra Investment in Inventory and
equipment, the salary, which you have to fork out to the cook who is
going to cook those dishes. Secondly you have to calculate what
percentage of sales that section is going to contribute to your total
revenue. If the percentage is not that significant, why go for it!

Stick to your concept and Innovate. Try to get your dishes to a quality
level appreciated by your guests.

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Have food trials and invite your friends and family members for tasting
your menu. Ask for feedback about the taste of the food and make major
changes only if you find any massive irregularities in recipes.

Fast Action – Do It Now!

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 CHAPTER FOUR

4.1 Fire Bad Apples!

Treat your staff nicely; of course the bad apples have

to be removed. So you can always fire people who are not co-operating,
who are not working, as you need them to work in your restaurant.
People who are demanding, who are unionizing. Unionizing is a term
where people try to take control of the management, and try to group
teams, or rather group people into, or a group rather. Then force them to
do things which are generally not desirable for the owners, or for the
betterment of your restaurant.

So make sure you do findings, and make sure that you are recruiting and
managing a good team.

How to recruit a restaurant staff and how to take care of them nicely is
one of the topics, which of course I’m going to go into deeper in this
course. You cannot get into the managing or the recruiting of the staff.
As it is, there are certain companies which will help you to recruit good
staff. Then I will show you some important points which you can focus
on, while keeping them happy.

You have to keep your staff excited, and focused. You should always
treat them so nicely, that they feel like they’re owning the restaurant,
and not as if they are working under a dictatorship. So it is like
ownership should be focused on more versus dictatorship. You should
treat them as a family not be a Hitler, or rather a general, and tell them
to do everything.

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Of course, some of the times you have to be little strict, but you have to
be lenient most of the times. Please, don’t forget that. So this, the
staffing, please understand, I am repeating it again, but the staffing is
the secret for your restaurant’s success. Don’t ever underestimate your
staff, because that would really put your restaurant into a tailspin.

4.2 It’s all a circus!

Here comes the main important topic of managing your restaurant.
Now, managing your restaurant, if, I tell you in a pictorial, I’m a picture
fan. So, I’m a movie fan, I tell you in a movie kind of a scenario, is like
driving a vehicle, or like running a circus. Running a circus would be a
better term. You have to take care of the lions, you have to take care of
the giraffe, the zebras, and the dancers. You have to take care of
everything.

So, it’s like, you have to, you have to use your chapbook (whip),
sometimes to punish some of the animals. Some of the time you have to
caress , caress your horse, or caress the other animals. Of course you
cannot caress the tiger. That would be a different conclusion all
together. Which I know, you must have imagined it in your mind,
rather.

So, small hinges swing big doors, which relates to a small mistakes get
your restaurant into trouble. That is the basic translation. So little, little
regular mistakes, like not getting your restaurant cleaned, not taking
care of the electricity Bills, not checking the food wastage, etc. These
are all small which if you let them happen, over a period of time can
expand to a big, real problem, which can be a threat to the running of
your restaurant.

So always keep an eye. Make sure you are following the system I am
giving you in this book. Both in the case of finance, cleanliness,
inventory, checking, and so on. These are all your regular duties. If you
schedule from time to time. Your staff will get used to it, and once they
get used to it, these thing will keep on happening, slow and steady.

46
These things will make sure that the standard of your restaurant does not
fall.

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4.3 Tight fist control on finances
Keep a sharp eye on the expenses and revenue. These are the two things
which can really make or break a restaurant. So never delegate your
chequebook. What I mean by that is, you have to keep a tight fist
control, over your expenses.

Either your trusted employee, manager, or relative, or for that matter,

you, yourself should handle the chequebook. If you let your check book
loose. You will see different ways in which you have been taken for a
ride, and that ride can be really painful and expensive.

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 Fill Your Restaurant Inventory

As a restaurant owner, there are two things on which you got to have
serious focus on. One is Wastage in the Kitchen (This is where most of
your profit is lost if not checked time to time) and second is Purchases.
You have to keep a tight tab on your purchasing, Getting Inventories at
reasonable rates, Buy Directly from a wholesaler if possible or buy with
as many few middle men as possible ensuring you buying them at
lowest cost.

Remember money saved is money earned! A few things to remember;

• Buy Directly from the Wholesaler.

• Proper Storage equipment’s like refrigerators, Storage bins,
• Racks and shelves to be procured and maintained to avoid
spoilage & wastages, which directly reduce your profit.
• Introducing and maintaining proper inventory record sheets
and issuing raw materials to avoid theft or misuse of articles.
• Every day record to be maintained of remaining stock with
cooks and pantry man to ensure restocking if necessary.

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Get robust Restaurant Management Software and make sure your staff
is entering all the inventory details while procurement, Issue and
restocking. Occasionally do cross checking of Physical inventory with
software records to ensure that the staff is maintaining the system. Do
the same for wastages by physically checking the Fridges and Food
Production area.

Fast Action – Do It Now!

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 CHAPTER FIVE

5.1 Getting Feedback and Adapting.

Getting feedback and adapting, this is one of

the most important features again. Getting feedback from your

customers after they have had their food, is one of the most important
things. I would like to say, part of the whole circle of running a
restaurant.

The food which you and your staffs are cooking, from your own
perception, think that the guests will like it. Once the guest eats it, you
have to take their feedback. And then after taking their feedback, you
have to adapt. Is it spicy? Is it oily? What kind of food do they like?
These all are things, you know, a few of the guest would love to tell
you.

Because, they’re guests who love a restaurant, will always care that the
restaurant excels in all their matters. In their food, in their cleanliness,
and everything else.

So they obviously share that. I generally worry if a guest is not telling

me anything. If a guest is not giving you any feedback, that really is an
indication that you are totally going the wrong way. Because we need
our guests, once they eat, to tell us what is good in it, what can be
improved in it? You should ask few of the guests, asking all of them
will be irritating, because some of them are little silent about it.

But then, the eccentric people who really love to go out and have fun,
who really are looking for an experience, will tell you. And make sure

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that you are recording it in some way. In the forms of feedback forms,
videos, testimonials, or whatever. Most importantly, then make sure that
you are acting on it.

If four days, five days down the line, for example if some of your guest
are telling you that chutney (Indian Sauce) is getting spicy, you cannot
leave that thing as it is. Because that guest is probably going to come
back after fifteen days, or even twenty days. He feels like everything
should be back to normal by then, and if again, finds out the taste of the
chutney is still spicy. He will think that the management is useless, and
then, he may not return again.

Please let me tell you, this is the smallest thing which really goes down.
And then, slowly, slowly if these things keep on happening, your guest
will desert your restaurant.

So, getting feedback, and adapting to them is very important. Make sure
you are taking periodic meetings. Generally in the start of the shift, a
meeting is taken. Where you discuss with your staff, what are things
that happened on the earlier day, what are things that is going to happen
in the day.

5.2 Handling Complaints

You have to learn from each and every complaint or suggestion. The
guest complains because he cares about the restaurant. If for example,
you had gone to a restaurant and you think the restaurant is not worth
complaining about, why would you complain?

You can directly go, leave the restaurant and not return again. If the
guest is complaining or suggesting something that means he cares and
he wants to comment. If you take care of that suggestion or complaint,
and implement it, the guest will return to you because he feels
appreciated.

So I always advice my clients and students to always act as fast as

possible on the complaint or suggestion and to thank the guest who has

52
suggested these things because a guest who is appreciated will always
return.

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5.3 Collecting Guest data
Make sure that you are collecting the guest data. What I mean by guest
data? Is their names, their addresses, their phone numbers, email IDs,
their birthdays and anniversaries. They are utterly important because the
real asset which you have in your business is the guest data.

There are people who have literally made crore of rupees by collecting
guest data and then periodically communicating to them about the
restaurant. What generally happens nowadays is, there are so many
restaurants in the market place where you go and have your food as
usual, and sometimes you get really busy with your daily activities.
Perhaps, there are so many restaurants who are advertising and trying to
gain your guest that you cannot really afford not to market to them.

If you don’t communicate to the guest frequently, they will lose you.
The reason is, they will forget about you and once they forget about
you, it is very hard to get them in your restaurant unless they are
hardcore fans. So apart from the hardcore fans of your restaurant who
are already so happy to be there with you, you have to keep on
communicating to other restaurant guests and the only way to do that is
by collecting all the guest data and communicating to create a sequence
and communicate to them frequently. So that they are updating with all
the things that you need to do.

How you do that? I am focusing on, I am covering it in depth in the

marketing of your restaurant points and the due course of the whole
book. So make sure that you take care of the guest data, don’t get lost in
the storm. Don’t just leave the marketing and promotions of your
restaurant to fate or to luck. There are times when you will have
beautiful days wherein you are going to be full, most of the Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday, generally all the restaurants are full.

But make sure that you take care of your restaurants sale and the whole
running of your restaurants during the time when there are low periods
also. Because that is the advantage you could get for you paying for
your staff for the whole month irrespective of whether you getting the
guest on a Sunday, or you not getting a guest on a Monday. So make
sure that you get real the value for the money which you have deployed
in this business and not just work purely based out of luck.

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Therefore, promotions are one of the most important points in covering
the points I am covering in the next module.

1.4 Communicate with your guest!

Communicate with your guest frequently, once you have the data, make
sure you compile them and once you make sure you don’t lose your
data. You have to keep on communicating with them via email,
postcards, letters and offers and make sure that your restaurant always
stays full.

By coming up with new, new ways to offer, to send them offers. Now
when managing your restaurant make sure you have a little bit of
Karamchand Eye (Detective Vision), the reason is you always should
have some surprise checks and ghost shopping. What I mean is, by
ghost shopping is you need to have a check on how your cash is
working, cash handling and how your waiters are working.

For a lack of a better term, is there a setting (arrangement) in-between

your kitchen and your restaurant staff. That is an indication a big
problem exists, there is a leakage there.

Setting in a sense that for example, if you don’t have a KOT (Kitchen
Ordering Ticketing System). KOT is the kitchen order ticketing system.
Once a guest places an order for an example an Uttappa, the waiter has
to punch it in your billing system and gets a KOT which is a Kitchen
Order Ticket. That means that the order is recorded in your system.

Now suppose you don’t have a KOT and the waiter directly gives the
order in the kitchen, he gets the Uttappa, serves the order to the guest,
suppose the guest has ordered two or three items and he does not bill
one Uttappa to the guest in expectation of a good tip, usually it happens
in expectation of a good tip.

If that happens to you, you lose the complete amount as well as you start
supporting the theory that theft can happen. So once one waiter is going
to do it then slowly a couple of other waiters will also start doing it. So
make sure you doing ghost shopping or send somebody or send your

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friend, send somebody else, try to make him do some nasty things, like
trying to convince your waiter, make sure that you are knowing what is
happening and what is not happening so that you can really take care of
it on a principal level.

Surprise checks, check your kitchen within 15-20 days, open your
refrigerators, if you find it dirty, make a hell out of it, shout at
everybody but make sure all the things are clean. If you don’t do a
surprise check, one month, two month down the line the place is going
to look horrible and then you cannot hold the staff responsible, of course
the staff is responsible for it but then down the whole way you are
responsible because you have not checked it.

As an owner, as a business owner you are in charge, make sure you

asking questions. Why is this not happening? Why is that not
happening? Why is this wastage not taken care of? If you keep on
telling these things, slowly, slowly these things will come in control and
they will always help you in the bottom line.

5.5 Discounting Helps Nobody!

Another very important aspect is the discounts. Personally my policy is
“I hate discounts”, discounts don’t help anybody. They are plague, they
are one of the most overused, although not necessary but overused,
discounts are the most overused word in all the industry, cutting the
price and thinking that you are doing the right thing for your business,
but in reality you are crippling the business.

If you offer a discount just for the sake of getting business, discounting
for a few percent is fine, as much as it is required. I always believe that
a business should have as much profit because profits help to maintain
the standards and to grow your business. So don’t, I’m not a big fan of
discounting. Make sure that you think twice before discounting.

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.5.6 Marketing & Promotions:

Finally, comes another important aspect of your restaurant running

successfully. That is, promoting your restaurant. Most of the restaurants
which are running right now close to you, don’t do promotions.

Marketing and promotion is good for you, it is good for a person who is
running a restaurant

The reason why most of them don’t do, is that they don’t know how to
promote a restaurant that is one of the reasons, and the second reason is
they always think of promotions as an additional cost.

Some business owners always think of marketing their business as a

cost. Whereas I always advise them, think of marketing as an
investment not as a cost. If you think as you’re marketing as a cost you
will never do marketing and that will really let your name erase from
your customers minds and you will lose in the long run.

So that’s one of the most important reasons why some restaurants failed.
Getting your new menu out. Some new signature dishes you can always
let them know. Another is giving them reasons to visit your restaurant

If you are renovating you can let them know, you can always keep them
in the loop and keep on something or the other new. Nobody wants to
go to a restaurant which is plain old boring that has the same old menu
for the past 5 years, nobody likes to do that.

So keep innovating, everybody likes new menus, special dishes,

festivals, food festivals and anniversaries menu, birthday menu,
complimentary item for that matter, anything, keep on innovating.

So these promotions of your restaurant have to be always compared to

what end of money you spending. So for example let’s take advertising,
if you’re advertising a restaurant you have to always have to match it on
what kind of return of investment it is getting you.

Don’t try to follow big dumb companies by giving ads in local

newspapers and spending thousands or lakhs of rupees and then come to
the conclusions that advertising doesn’t work.

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Advertising is a pretty big game, do that if you want to, if you have deep
pockets but mostly I would not, I would suggest to focus on the return
of investment.

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 Promote your restaurant even before it starts!
Promoting your restaurant is one thing you should not miss if you really
want to succeed in the restaurant business. Marketing and promoting is
also one of the most neglected things you will find in the restaurant
industry. Mostly because the owners think that if good quality is served,
the guests will keep on coming. Though some of that is true, you cannot
totally rely on our food quality to get you more business. You have got
to get out there and spread the word. Here are a few things you can do to
increase awareness in the marketplace,

Start dedicating some time, money and energy into marketing your
restaurant. Marketing is not possible if you don’t spend.

• Collect their physical address and email ids.

• Create monthly and seasonal promotions and communicate to
them as frequently as possible.
• Create your Restaurant Yearly Marketing calendar.
• Update your guests on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatsapp
and other social media platforms about upcoming activities and
events.
• Launch Seasonal Food festivals and communicate to your
guests so that they know what new is coming and when!
• Keep on introducing and promoting new recipes and menus to
keep your guests excited and curious about your restaurant.

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Plan a marketing calendar and jot down all the things you can possibly
do in a month to attract new guests and update existing customers.
Don’t stop your Marketing even for a single month!

Fast Action – Do It Now!

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